Lance Armstrong Sells His $10 million Estate in Austin, Texas

Former cyclist Lance Armstrong is liquidating some assets, which includes his extravagant home nearAustin,Texas, along with the Texas-sized legal despairs that ultimately cost Armstrong the lion’s share of his ill-gotten gains.

The Department of Justice, along with others, is suing Armstrong for tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that were directed towards the former cyclist’s corrupt U.S. Postal Service cycling team.

Al Koehler, the Austin American-Statesman and businessman, filed a deed of trust last week, inTravisCounty, which showed that he got hold of a $3.1 million loan in order to purchase Armstrong’s luxurious estate inTexas. Koehler told the newspaper that he paid nothing close to $10 million, which is the property’s listed value.

Armstrong is banned for life from sports, after being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. He confessed that his cycling career was ‘one big lie’ on Oprah Winfrey’s show in January, but has not made a full accounting of his dishonesties as of yet.

The sale of the estate was confirmed by Mark Higgins, a spokesman for Armstrong, and he also stated that Armstrong had no plans to move out of the city.

The disgraced cyclist recently pleaded a Texas Court to dismiss a lawsuit against him by SCA Productions, which are asking for $12 million that Armstrong took from the company in the settlement of an arbitration case where Armstrong swore under oath that he never doped.

Other parties have put out various claims, in particular a claim that declaring that Armstrong defrauded people who bought the books that he co-authored with Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post.

At the top of his career, Armstrong owned homes inAspen,Spainand South of France. He socialized with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, dated Sheryl Crow and flew around in private jets. He swore he was clean, and seemed to win seven Tour de France titles.

However, to everyone’s surprise, or not, his performances were triggered by banned substances like testosterone and EPO, including illegal blood transfusions carried out in hotels, and also in the U.S. Postal Service’s team bus, according to sworn testimony. Dozens of people knew about Armstrong’s situation and they made a lot of money from their knowledge as Armstrong sued and smeared anyone who spoke about their suspicions.

In the beginning of 2010, a federal investigation took place, when Armstrong’s former team mate, Floyd Landis, was spilling the beans on all the corruption taking place. A grand jury produced tons of evidence, however the investigation ended mysteriously in January 2012. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency then accused Armstrong of doping.

Armstrong accepted defeat late last summer. His sponsors jumped ship and lawsuits started cropping up.